Yankees dream Opening Day rotation after free agency: Crochet trade and more

The New York Yankees went and won the American League Pennant for the first time in over a decade this year. But this offseason is going to be very indicative of how their future will shape up. Players like Juan Soto, Gleyber Torres, Anthony Rizzo and Clay Holmes are all unrestricted free agents and New York isn't guaranteed to sign any of them back.

New York has already brought its ace, Gerrit Cole, back after Cole opted out of his player option. With Cole at the head of the staff, New York has a strong foundation below him, but I certainly wouldn't call their current crop the dream rotation. There are a few additions that the Yankees could make that would take their starting rotation over the top.

What would a dream starting rotation look like in the Bronx?

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New York Yankees dream Opening Day rotation after free agency

Yankees trade for Garrett Crochet and move Clarke Schmidt to the bullpen

The Yankees aren't going to go into free agency and try to sign one of the big-name pitchers. New York will be more worried about signing Soto, Torres, a first baseman and some bullpen help to spend much money on starting pitching. They already have a solid foundation of average pitchers with one or two above average arms.

One way for the Yankees to boost their bullpen would be slotting Clarke Schmidt back into the bullpen after he spent the last two seasons in the starting rotation. This one is a tough decision. Either Schmidt or Nester Cortes could be traded or moved to the bullpen, and I lean towards it being Schmidt that's slotted into the bullpen because he's had success as a reliver before. Cortes hasn't had that same success. Just ask Freddie Freeman.

But the key to moving Schmidt would be making a blockbuster trade with the Chicago White Sox to acquire their ace Garrett Crochet.

Crochet is expected to be moved in the coming months, but the wild card of his situation is the team that acquires him. Just about every team in the league could use an ace caliber arm to stick at the top of the rotation. While the Yankees haven't been directly connected to Crochet yet, there's a chance that they opt to make a big splash depending on how free agency shapes up.

Yankees trade Marcus Stroman and sign Roki Sasaki to take his place

Now, I stated earlier that the Yankees won't be looking at free agency to make the big splash for a starting pitcher. But that was slightly misleading. They won't be in free agency coughing up $25 million or more a year to bring in an arm like Max Fried, Corbin Burnes or Blake Snell. But they will absolutely throw their name in the hat to acquire international free agent Roki Sasaki.

Since Sasaki is coming to the United States and MLB as a 23-year-old, he can't sign for a massive contract like he deserves and like what Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shota Imanaga were given. Instead, Sasaki can only be signed to a minor league deal which opens him up to be signed by any of the 30 teams in the league without really impacting their free agency spending.

Signing Sasaki would allow the Yankees to shop Marcus Stroman, who didn't seem like a bad signing at the time, but the Yankees paid him way too much money to not be good enough to crack the postseason roster. Trading Stroman would open up more money in free agency. It would open up a spot for Sasaki in the rotation and it would add more prospects to the Yankees farm system. Replacing Stroman with Sasaki would be a dream come true for the Bronx Bombers.